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Standard Bank hired Greg Gonzalez, an emerging markets bond trader from WestLB. Gonzalez started last Monday. The position is a newly created one for the New York-based branch office of the South African bank. Gonzalez says he will trade Latin American corporate bonds, as he did at WestLB, plus some more exotic sovereign bonds from Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Uruguay. The broadening of his trading experience is one of the reasons for his move, he explains.

Synthetic collateralized debt obligation volumes rocketed from European issuers last year, while the number of cash flow deals remained, at best, flat, according to BW sister publication Derivatives Week. End-of-year figures obtained by DW, due to be published by the rating agencies in the coming weeks, show the number of synthetic CDOs increasing up to threefold, whereas cash-flow deals have either stagnated or fallen. "What I thought might take five or six years happened in two years. The speed surprised me," said Ebo Coleman, v.p. and senior credit officer at Moody's Investors Service in London.

Arturo Cifuentes and Jonathan Polansky have left collateralized debt obligation shop Triton Partners in New York where they were portfolio managers. Cifuentes confirmed his resignation effective last Monday via e-mail, but did not respond to e-mails seeking further information. An insider at Triton confirmed Polansky's departure as well. Polansky could not be reached for comment. They both reported to Simon Mikhailovich, co-founding partner, and Michael Sollott, co-founder and cio. Sollott and Mikhailovich declined to comment.

Arturo Cifuentes and Jonathan Polansky have left collateralized debt obligation shop Triton Partners in New York where they were portfolio managers. Cifuentes confirmed his resignation, effective last Monday, via e-mail, but did not respond to e-mails seeking further information. Sources confirmed Polansky's departure as well. Polansky could not be reached for comment. They both reported to Simon Mikhailovich, co-founding partner, and Michael Sollott, co-founder and cio. Mikhailovich declined to comment on the departures.

Kinetic Concepts, a specialty hospital supply manufacturer, has reached a favorable settlement with Hillenbrand Industries, whereby Kinetic Concepts will receive a total of $250 million from Hillenbrand. Standard & Poor's has reacted to this development by upgrading Kinetic Concepts from B to B+ and assigning a stable outlook to the credit. The company plans to use the net proceeds from a first-stage $175 million payment to pay down the company's credit facility. "We plan on making a voluntary pre-payment this year," said Marty Landon, Kinetic cfo. He explained that roughly $105 million will be distributed across all the tranches on a pro rata basis in January.

Scotia Capital, Salomon Smith Barney and Bank of America are still plugging away on Levi Strauss & Co.'s $800 million refinancing deal, topping the $300 million mark in commitments for the $400 million "B" piece. Bankers familiar with the deal said that the holiday period slowed up syndication, blowing the commitment deadline originally set for Dec. 23. However, pricing has not changed. Bankers noted that the spread is still set at LIBOR plus 4% for the term loan and LIBOR plus 31/ 2% on the $400 million revolver. Levi Strauss currently has a B1-rated, $1.05 billion facility with the three banks that matures in August of this year. Credit Suisse First Boston, FleetBoston Financial and J.P. Morgan have committed to the revolver. Scotia and B of A officials declined to comment, while a Salomon official did not return calls.

A pair of telecom analysts says that of the three high-grade regional bell operating companies (RBOCs), only Verizon Communications offers slight upside for fixed-income investors. Spreads tightened on 10-year bonds of Verizon, SBC Communications and BellSouth after a Wall Street Journal report indicated that a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission would ease restrictions on the baby bells that require them to share their networks with competitors. However, Matt Bartlett, analyst at Banc of America Securities, expects vigorous litigation from the long distance carriers that will try to block or alter the proposal. He also expresses concerns about the apparent two-year timetable for implementation of the changes.

MetLife Investments has hired Bob Halgren as a telecom analyst covering both high-yield and high-grade credits, according to analysts with knowledge of the situation. Halgren fills a position that had been open since Saba Hekmat went to OppenheimerFunds in November. He could not be reached, and John Wand, head of credit research at MetLife, declined comment. Halgren worked for some 15 years at Prudential Financial both in New Jersey and in London, according to one former colleague.

Morgan Keegan is looking to make about five new hires for a fixed-income sales office the firm has established in New York. Peter Lozier, who joined the firm last summer to build the New York team, says he is looking for people with established account relationships in any and all of the principal fixed-income product areas. He is open to hiring more than five people, but says that fixed-income sales has been such a profitable occupation over the last couple of years that recruitment has not been easy. Morgan Keegan underwrote some $32 billion in U.S. debt last year, placing it 12th among U.S. investment banks in 2002, according to Bloomberg.

Consolidated Container, a plastic container manufacturer, was working to amend its credit facility to push out amortization payments on its term loans for two years as LMW went to press last week. According to buysiders and dealers, the amendment would be passed. "It's just a cash flow situation. In order to meet the covenants and perform, they had to mothball the amortization payments," noted one dealer, adding, "It's a two-year deferral and it's supposed to be a permanent solution." The company needs 51% lender approval by tranche to pass any changes to its amortization schedule and also 51% to pass any covenant changes, noted one buysider.

Spreads have rallied on paper company MeadWestvaco Corp.'s benchmark 6.85% notes of '12, and at least one portfolio manager is looking to reduce exposure. J.P. Weaver, who oversees $1 billion in taxable fixed-income at McGlinn Capital Management in Wyomissing, Pa., sees Mead's bonds as a typical example of a credit that may be overdone in the corporate spread rally that has endured since October.

Qwest Communications International's revolver received a boost from speculation that the Federal Communications Commission is going to repeal its provision that requires regional bell companies to rent their networks to long-distance companies at below-cost rates. A repeal would hurt the efforts of long-distance companies to compete in the local arena, but regional bell operating companies, such as Qwest, would benefit from such a ruling, noted one dealer. Market players said a few small pieces of the company's revolver traded in the 94 1/2 95 range. The paper ticked up from the 93 level on the news.